Visual-signal station.



A. L- SOHM.

VISUAL SIGNAL STATION.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 2, 1910.

Patented May 11, 1915.

l/ btneooeo;

JHE NORRIS PETERS 60., FHOYO-LITHOU WASHINGTON. D. C,

ran srATEs PATENT onrion.

ALFRED LOUIS SOHM, 013 LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA, ASSIGNOR TO SOI-IM ELECTRIC SIGNAL & RECORDING COMPANY, OF SPOKANE, WASHINGTON, A CORPORATION OF ARIZONA.

VISUAL-SIGNAL STATION.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed May 2, 1910. Serial N 0. 558,999.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALFRED L. SOHM, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Los Angeles, in the county of Los Angeles and State of California, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Visual-Signal Stations, of which the following is a specification.

My invention pertains to signal boxes for watchmen or for like uses, and the object is to provide a box of this character, the stations in connection with which are located at suitable points throughout a building and electrically connected up in circuits with a centrally-recording and indicating mechanism, so that the number of the box or station will be registered and which, by a special designation, will indicate a watchmans station, and also record the year, month, day, hour and minute, on which the watchmanreported or signaled.

The object, further, is to provide a box of this character, equipped with a connecting jack and a signal coil, and so arranged that if the line or lines should become open or short circuited, the watchman will be informed of the fact, and thus may immedili ately take steps to locate the trouble, as hereinafter explained in detail.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a front View of my improved watchmans box. Fig. 2 is a front view of the box with the cover removed. Fig. 3 is a central vertical cross section of the box. Fig. 4 is a side view with the side of the box removed. Fig. 5 is a view of the removable top of the box. Fig. 6 is a View of the box with the top removed, showing the coil and jack.

vFig. 7 is'a top view showing the coil, jack,

armature and visual plate. Fig. 8 is a side view showing manner of removing side wall, and, Fig. 9 is a view of the jack plug.

In constructing my invention I provide a box 10 of any suitable size, the front 11, the sides 12, 13, and the top 14, of which are removable. The front 11 is provided at its lower end with an eye 15 to receive a projecting stud 16, cast with the bottom 16. This plate has a circular opening 17 to receive therein a visual glass 17, and directly below it an opening for the number plate. Each of the side plates 12, 13, has at one corner a tongue 18 adapted to enter an eye 19 in the corner of the box at the top, and in the diagonal corner of each side plate is a spur 20, having a hole 21 to cooperate with a projection on the base which has also a hole (not shown) by means of which the side plates may be sealed or otherwise temporarily locked. The top 14 has at its rear end a detent 22, adapted to engage with a hook-shaped projection in the back plate, and the front edge has aspur 23 provided with a hole 24 to engage in an opening 25 formed in the front wall, provision being made for sealing the top at this point.

Within the box I mount on the bottom 16 a vertically-disposed magnet 26, and hinged to brackets 27 on the rear wall above the magnet, is an armature 28, this armature extending forward close to the front plate 11, where it is hinged to a vertically-disposed visual plate 29, which is directly be hind the visual glass 17. A spring 30, wound on the pivot pin 31, of the armature, with the ends in contact with the back wall and the other looped end under the armature, serves to hold the armature normally away from the magnet, and also to keep the inscription on the visual plate directly behind the opaque portions 31 of the visual glass 17. When the magnet isenergized the visual plate is drawn down so as to expose the inscription to the clear glass portions 32 of the visual glass.

A spring jack 33 is vertically mounted on the base in front of the magnet, having an opening 34 in the base and an escutcheon 35 in which the plug 36 is inserted. This jack is made up of a base 37, secured by brackets 38, in which is mounted a pair of fingers 39, 40, and suitably insulated from the base 37,

Patented May 11, 1915.

in case the base itself is not made of insulatof this class. I The circuiting is diagrammatically shown in F ig. 3. The lower end of the finger 40 is connected by means of wire 45 with one end of the contact plate 44, andalso with the upper end of finger 41. The finger 39 has a Wire 43 which extends to and through the coil of magnet 26 by connections hereinafter specified and terminates at one end of the contact plate 46, and also connects with the upper end of finger 42. The ends of the contact plates 44, 46, therefore, form the ter minals for the line wires for purposes which will be hereinafter explained. The simplicity of the box structure will be noted when it is understood that the ack and the magnet are both secured to the base 16 and the armature through the back wall of the boX, so that should repairs be necessary one of the side walls only need be removed, the escutcheon taken oif' to remove the jack and the screw 26 taken out from the bottom of the magnet when these parts can be removed and replaced after breaking and again remaking the connections at the contact plates which latter are also secured to the rear wall. The interior mechanism is thus self-contained and all working parts can be quickly and easily mounted or dismounted without disturbing the box from its fastenings.

The operation of the box and circuits is as follows: WVhen the plug 36 is inserted in the jack, connection is made through the plug between the spring fingers 41, 42, and they are also respectively brought into contact with the lower ends of the fingers 40, 39, which latter are in series with coil winding of the magnet 26, as shown, thus energizing the magnet and drawing down the visual plate 29, so that the signal may be viewed through the clear glass portion 32 of the glass 17, and when the plug is removed the armature will be restored to, its normal position by the spring 30 and the signal again thrown behind the opaque portion of the visual glass. The purpose of this visual signal is to indicate when the lines are open, or short-circuited. When the watchman, for instance, in case of short-circuiting', inserts the plug,-the visual signal will not appear, and this is sufficient to indicate that there is trouble on the line.

On the visual plate 29, I purpose to place strips of black and white, similar in widths and alinement with the clear and opaque portions of the opaque glass 17. Then the visual plate is in a normal position, the black strips are behind the opaque parts of the visual glass but when the armature is drawn down the black appears behind the clear por tion of the visual glass.

If the spring fingers, 40, 42, and 39, 41, are so connected that there should be a feeble contact between them, 40' and 41 being connected as one, and 39 42 as one, then connection will be made through all the fingers39,

40, 41 and42, thus giving double connections and assuring perfect work in the internal circuit. It is also obvious that if the spring fingers 41 42 should be spread apart by any character of plug, and contact made between the lower ends of, for instance, fingers 40 42, or fingers 39 41, then the circuit through the coil and signaling system would also show. Underthe circumstances the plug, whether metallic or not, would form a circuit, and if either of the contact points of the fingers should not work a metal plug would still form a connection and thus assure a circuit under all conditions.

What I claim as new, is

1. In combination, a housing having a visual opening, a spring jack therein arranged for the reception of a contact plug inserted through an opening in said housing, a circuit including the spring jack and arranged to be closed by the reception of and contact with a contact plug, an electromagnet mounted in said casing and having its winding connected in said circuit, and a target arranged to be moved relative to said visual opening in said housing by the energization of said electromagnet, whereby there may be a visual indication of the proper closing of the circuit by the insertion of the plug.

2. In combination, a housing having a visual opening, a spring jack therein, a contact plug adapted to be inserted through an opening in said housing and into said spring jack, a circuit including the spring jack and arranged to be closed by the reception of and contact with said plug, an electromagnet mounted in said casing and having-its winding connected in said circuit, and a target arranged to be moved relative to said visual opening in. said housing by the energization of said electromagnet, whereby there may be a visual indication of the proper closing ofv the circuit by the insertion of the plug.

3. In combination, a housing for a visual opening, electrical contact mechanism therein, a circuit includingsaid electrical contact mechanism, means for operating sa-i'd' electrical contact mechanism to close said circuit through an opening in said housing, an electromagnet mounted in said casing and having its winding connected in said circuit, and a; target arranged to be moved relative to a visual opening in said housing by the energization of said" electromagnet, whereby there may be a visual indication of the proper closing of" the circuit.

4. In a visual signal station device, an electromagnet, a spring jack comprising two sets of springs each spring of each set being connected in parallel with one spring of the other set and in the circuit of said. electromagnet, and a portable contact plug which upon insertion. into said jack actuatesboth sets of springs. V

5. In a visual signalstation device, an electromagnet, a spring jack comprising two sets of springs each spring of each set being connected in parallel with one spring of the Los Angeles and State of California, A. D.-

other set and in theO circuit of said electro- 1910. ma net and a porta 1e metallic contact plug ada pted for insertion into said ack for caus- ALFRED LOUIS SOHM ing an electrical connection between the Witnesses: springs of each set. F. W. HART, Signed at Los Angeles in the county of J. G. JORKS;

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing th Commissioner of fatents, Washington, D. G. 

